Would you believe it? The time has come to talk about next-generation consoles again. The PS4 and Xbox One have been in service for almost eight years and it’s time for a new phase of gaming machines. While Microsoft and Sony have been rather tight-lipped about their upcoming consoles, the recent E3 press conference in Los Angeles has brought us some exciting announcements.
Now that Sony and Microsoft have both talked about their next consoles to some degree, it's clear that the next generation is nearly upon us. That little fact begs the question of what's going to happen with the games that are launching on current hardware right before these new consoles release. Will those games make the jump to the new consoles as well? In the case of Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII remake at least, it sounds like there's a pretty good chance of that happening.
Since the dawn of the market, consoles have not been that friendly to their predecessors. In the beginning, it had more to do with technical limitations and incompatible advancements that made it nearly impossible to support games from older generations. These days, however, it's more about business considerations, partly to push sales of new consoles. The newly-minted PlayStation CEO says he wants to put an end to that practice and offer some compatibility between the current PS4 and its successor. That is if the company and the rest of the industry let him.
Naughty Dog has announced that the PlayStation 3 versions of some of its biggest games will soon have their multiplayer servers shut down. The games due for this multiplayer sunset include Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, and The Last of Us. If you're surprised to hear that PS3 multiplayer for these games is still up and running after all these years, you definitely aren't alone.
If you're a PlayStation 4 owner and you've ever wished that you could have more people in a party beyond the current limit of eight, then it looks like today is your lucky day. Sony has launched an expanded party feature into testing via the PlayStation Preview program, and you can sign up to get an early access look at how it works. Chief among the expanded party system's features is support for up to 16 participants at once.
Today Apple revealed a big update to tvOS, the operating system inside AppleTV. This update will roll with a new Control Center where users are able to switch - between you, me, and all the other people in this house. For the future of Apple TV and Apple Arcade, this next update is huge: Apple TV will soon be able to use Xbox One and PlayStation DualShock controllers.
The last few months have been relatively quiet in terms of the free games offered through PlayStation Plus, but that's all changing in June. Sony has revealed the games that will up for grabs through PS Plus next month, and both of them are excellent titles worth downloading. That's especially true if recent events have you feeling down about a particular blue hedgehog.
Hideo Kojima's returned to the realm of next-generation gaming - as if he'd ever really left. He's no longer working with Konami, and will probably make no more Metal Gear Solid. Now he's fully immersed in the realm of Death Stranding, a game that's been in development with Kojima Productions (his own production studio) for at least three years.
Sony's PlayStation VR system is well and away the easiest form of non-mobile virtual reality in the world at the moment. With the introduction of VR to the console world came the possibility that there'd be more than a couple splits in content - and usability. Interaction with the 3D content in a virtual reality, from your couch, in your living room - that's the true dream. Now add a pair of pants.
HTC, LG, and Sony are three companies from three different countries that have two things in common. All three's mobile businesses have been bleeding for years and none of them are ready to give up the fight just yet. But while HTC and LG seem to just be going through the motions of launching smartphones, Sony has a more specific vision for its mobile devices. And, somewhat ironically, it's not really for the sake of smartphones themselves but for the core of its consumer electronics business: entertainment.
Up until now, we've only heard reports of Sony closing up shops in Southeast Asia and the Middle East to name a few markets. Traditionally, Sony has been pretty quiet about its mobile presence in regional markets and it seemed its secrecy will continue now that the business has been swallowed up by a larger Electronics Products & Solutions business. But while it hasn't exactly named names, a recent corporate strategy presentation confirms which markets Sony's mobile phones have left and what little remains of its focus regions.
Today we're looking at the Sony PlayStation 5, or PS5, using all the information we've gathered over the last few weeks. Today is a special day in that over the last 24 hours, we've learned more than was leaked over the past couple of months. Today's pack of information should be enough to assist your decision to start saving up cash to buy the PS5 (or to skip it and buy a few more PS4 games instead).